/I don't own anything you recognize in this story. /

Chapter One

Charlie kicked the sand as he walked in anger. He couldn't believe that he blew it with Shannon. Or more likely, Shannon blew it with him. Actually, "blew" wasn't the word that he wanted to use right here. The word was more like "traitor" or "liar". Why did she have to do that to him?

He finally collapsed onto a sand dune and placed his head into his hands. Why did he always have to trust the women? Charlie always gave one more chance to see if the next woman would be his forever as long as he lived and who wouldn't leave after several months after being married to the bass guitarist of Drive Shaft. It always happened that way—a famous person fell in love and then the person that they fall in love with treats them like dirt.

Charlie slowly raised his head and wiped his nose on the sleeve of his sweater. It wasn't very good manners, but who has any manners on a savage island? Definitely not him, at least he didn't think he had any.

As he sat staring aimlessly out into the ocean, he heard somebody walking across the sand towards him. Charlie didn't want to know who it was, he was pretty sure that the person would speak up sooner or later or they wouldn't have made the effort to follow him. As the person sat down, Charlie barely glanced at who it was, but he could tell that it was a female. He hoped that it wasn't Shannon.

"Charlie, are you okay?" It was Kate. Charlie inwardly groaned, he didn't really want to talk to Kate, though she seemed pretty hard core and down-to-earth.

Charlie shook his head. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'll just be fine."

"OK, if you say so, Charlie. Oh, and by the way, I think your band is one of the best. I even have one of your CDs," Kate commented.

Charlie's eyes brightened when he heard this. "Really? Yes, Drive Shaft's the best out there. We're going to be the best next to the Beatles." He loved it when he could talk about his band for the band was his life and he couldn't think of any other life.

Kate laughed. "The best second only to the Beatles? That's a pretty hard title to live up to, if you get my meaning."

"It kind of is, but I think Drift Shaft's going to make it. I really want it to," Charlie smiled, encouraged by Kate's words.

"You know what Locke said when I said he couldn't go after that boar all by himself while I was helping Michael?" Kate asked.

Charlie shook his head. "No, what did he say?"

"Don't tell me what I can't do," Kate said.

"Those are some pretty powerful words, I wonder what he meant by them?" Charlie wondered.

Kate shrugged. "Exactly what the words mean. I guess he had a lot of experiences in his life where people said he couldn't do something. I guess I'm trying to give some words of encouragement."

Charlie smiled. "They helped."

The silence between was comfortable. As Charlie gazed aimlessly at Kate, he felt himself becoming attracted to her. The way the sun glinted off of her hair and the shadows and light playing around her face. The radiant glow of her as a whole...

"So what ARE you doing out here by yourself?" Kate asked.

Charlie quickly sobered and felt his anger and irritation rise. Why did she have to jolt everybody back to the present? Nobody liked that kind of stuff when they were trying to think of something else to keep their minds off of their troubles.

"What's it to you?" Charlie asked irritably.

"I was only asking, Charlie. You don't have to get all mad about it," Kate said.

"Oh, ok, you think that, Kate. I've had a traumatic experience here and I would really like to be by myself here," Charlie snapped.

"We've all had a traumatic experience, maybe if we'd just talk about it—" Kate exclaimed.

"Well, maybe I don't want to talk about it," Charlie stated, standing up. "You don't understand, nobody understands. I'm going back to camp now."

Charlie started back for the camp with Kate calling after him, but Charlie ignored her callings. He didn't care whether she wanted to know how he felt or not. But seriously, nobody knew how he felt about anything.